1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sorter for copy machine, and more particularly to device and method for controlling the sorter, said sorter having slot liners each having an inclined middle portion extending to the ejecting section of the copy machine, and transfer wheels each provided with three slots each radially formed at 120.degree. angle centering around the center of said transfer wheel and three pairs of insert wheels, each pair of said insert wheels mounted between two slots.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, a known sorter for copy machine, which is equipped with slot liners and transfer wheels, has adopted a method of arranging and separating the copy sheets by transferring successively each pair of pin trays of a plurality of bin trays.
However, there has been a gap between the ejecting section of the copy machine and the bin tray of the known sorter so that the sorter might require an auxiliary unit for stable receiving the copy sheets, thereby causing a device for controlling the known sorter to be complicated.
Referring now to FIG. 1 which is a schematic block diagram for representing a control device for controlling a known sorter, the control device of the known sorter is provided with a central control unit 11 for controlling the operation of the sorter, said central control unit 11 generally comprising an one chip microprocessor having ROM and RAM therein or a separable processor and memory. Also, there is provided an interface unit 12 connected between a control unit of the copy machine and the central control unit 11 and adapted for receiving a control signal from one side and sending the signal to the other side. In addition, the control device is provided with a copy sheet ejecting sensor 13, an one half rotation sensor 14, a home position sensor 15, a feed motor driving circuit 16 and a bin motor driving circuit 18, said copy sheet ejecting sensor 13 adapted for sensing the ejecting of the copy sheet from the copy machine and outputting a sensed signal to the central control unit 11, said one half rotation sensor 14 for controlling an operation of the transfer wheels each having two slots, said home position sensor 15 for sensing home positions of the bin trays and outputting the sensed signal to said central control unit 11, said feed motor driving circuit 16 for driving a feed motor 17 which is adapted for feeding the copy sheets under the control of the central controlling unit 11, and capable of rotating in normal direction, said bin motor driving circuit 18 connected to the central controlling unit 11 and adapted for driving a bin motor 19 which is adapted for driving the transfer wheels for transferring the bin trays upwards and downwards, and capable of rotating in normal and reversed directions.
However, in the known sorter having the above-mentioned control device, it has been noted that there were several disadvantages of complicate structure, slow processing speed of the control device and slow separating speed of the copy sheets.